Some of the best stories in Major League Baseball are of the David vs. Goliath variety; Moneyball overcoming the payroll behemoth. While this postseason featured some of those underdogs, they were quickly swept aside thanks to rotations that simply couldn’t match their larger market competition. The playoffs effectively eliminate the need for a fifth starter and boil down the organizational depth that so many of these small market teams value, into a 25-man roster. Even that 25-man roster can be a little misleading. Often the playoffs are about superstar performances. While the media may overstate these gladiator-esque performances (think Curt Schilling’s bloody sock), highly paid individuals have made the difference this postseason.
On Thursday, the Tigers defeated the A’s behind an absolutely dominant Justin Verlander and a home run from Miguel Cabrera. Those two guys are making a combined $41 million this year alone. Compare that with the A’s total team payroll of $61 Million. We’ve heard this argument before. The A’s are competing in an unfair game. They have to take advantage of market inefficiencies just to compete and even then are doing so with the disadvantage of a small market and a terrible ballpark.
One could argue that it’s not just the A’s that were competing against the grain this postseason. Look no further than the starting pitching matchups in deciding games of this years’ respective Division Series.
- ALDS Game 5: Justin Verlander v Sonny Gray (21 MM v Rookie, minimum)
- ALDS Game 4: Jake Peavy vs Jeremy Hellickson (14.5 MM vs $503,000)
- NLDS Game 4: Clayton Kershaw vs Freddy Garcia (11.25 MM vs Minor League Contract, minimum)
- NLDS Game 5: Adam Wainwright vs Gerrit Cole (12 MM vs Rookie, minimum)
Forget for a moment that Freddy Garcia out-dueled Clayton Kershaw, the more highly paid guy’s team won in every game. Consider that the best the Braves, Rays, Pirates, and A’s could muster when their team faced elimination was a pair of rookies, a guy cast off by the Orioles and Padres, and a guy that compiled an ERA over 5 in 2013.
At the end of the day, higher payrolls don’t always buy quality (just ask the 2012 Red Sox or 2013 Yankees). But, the ability to assemble a deep, veteran starting rotation–the type that can win in the postseason– requires big time monetary investment. In the Tigers-A’s series, the Tigers’ four starting pitchers (Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, and Doug Fister) combined to pitch 34.1 of the 44 innings. In the Red Sox-Rays series, the Rays four starting pitchers combined to pitch 17.1 innings across 4 games.
The disparity in starting pitching at least corresponds with the disparity in payroll. We had a great round of DS games that could have all been unfairly summed with “Underdog vs Payroll Giant.” In each case, the Payroll Giants won. Now with the ALCS and NLCS approaching, it will be interesting to see which of the Payroll Giants wins.
Just remember that baseball is still an unfair game.
-Sean Morash
